When Monitoring Your Employees Goes Wrong

An employee monitoring system can bring a game-changing shift to your business. Video monitoring increases employee likelihood to abide by the rules, work diligently and honestly. However, surveillance must be executed with caution and with respect for employee privacy and personal space.

Recently, employee monitoring in the workplace has begun triggering law suits, bringing many lawyers to the forefront to defend employees whose privacy and rights have been completely invaded.

One of the most common invasions of privacy is tracking employees through GPS on the smartphone. Although this might seem like common sense to avoid, companies technically have the right to monitor and track any company-provided devices. After all, the devices are the property of the company, and they want to keep track of their technological investments. Unsurprisingly, the tracking extends into hours outside of work, creating an unsettling knowing that employers are constantly aware of employee whereabouts and activities outside of the workplace. Even if employees are not involved in an activity that can harm their employees’ perception of them, nobody wants to be chronically monitored by a boss.

Disclose all monitoring activities to employees

Whether you are setting up cameras in the workplace or enforcing a GPS monitoring policies, let your employees know. Keep everyone in the loop on exactly what will be monitored- when, how, where and most importantly, why. If your aim is to keep the business running smoothly and to reach financial or output goals, fill in your team. They’ll understand that you want the company to grow; likely, they’ll be on board to help you do so.

Back up any monitoring with legitimate business interests and concerns

Have a clear purpose behind why you plan to monitor company activity. This is not only for the sake of employee curiosity, but your own use of resources and budget.

Ensure that monitoring is applied to all employees in the workforce

If you have a couple team members, who you need to keep an eye on, having a conversation or employment re-consideration is your first step. When monitoring is set up, it should be to boost overall company performance and transparency.

Make monitoring access selective

Be mindful with whom you give access to monitoring and tracking. These employees should be hand selected based on both trust and training.

Make the most of your employee monitoring efforts with technology, equipment, and analysis from Glimpse Corp. Our team can consult your company on necessary surveillance, coach you through execution and help make sure that any uses of the data and analysis Glimpse provide do not lean toward invasions of employee privacy. When you are ready to incorporate video analysis into your business model, the Glimpse Corp team is here for you!